The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s6: The Hoysaḷas
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c6.s6
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The Hoysaḷas
c6.s6.1
The first of this family of whom we have any authentic information is Vinayāditya who was a *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* subordinate to the Western Chālukya king Vikramāditya VI. They appear to have been originally followers of the Jaina faith, but subsequently went over to Vaishṇavism. The family took advantage of the weakened state of the Chālukya kingdom to throw off their allegiance and assert their own independence. Vinayāditya's descendant, Vishṇuvardana, fixed the boundaries of his new kingdom, and, although he attempted an invasion of the Chālukya territories, he was repulsed by the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Āchugi II., who pursued him into his own territories, besieged Dvārasamudra, his capital, and captured the city of Bēlupūra.
c6.s6.2
It was Ballāḷa II., however, who, after defeating Barma or Brahma, the general of the Western Chālukya king Sōmēśvara IV., overran the southern and central districts of the Kanarese territory and established himself at Lokkiguṇḍi (Lakkuṇḍi) as his northern capital in A.D. 1191. He also had another seat of government at Aṇṇigeri. The threatening attitude of the Yādavas, with whom he appears to have already come into contact, rendered it necessary for him to establish his headquarters as near his northern boundaries as possible; and, perhaps, after all, Lakkuṇḍi and Aṇṇigeri were rather chief military outposts than civic centres.
c6.s6.3
Ballāḷa was succeeded by his son Narasimha II., who appears to have lost ground before the advancing troops of the Yādavas, and to have retired to the old capital of Dvārasamudra, contenting himself with a much more restricted territory. There are only three inscriptions of his reign known, one of which, at Harihar, records the construction of the temple of Harihara by his lieutenant Polāḷva in A.D. 1223. There is no need to follow the fortunes of the Hoysaḷas any further, as they concern us no more.
c6.s6.4
It is to the Yādavas of Dēvagiri that we must now turn, who had, by this time, possessed themselves of the whole of the Kanarese districts to the north of the present Maisur border.